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C. L. Max Nikias Biography

C. L. Max Nikias is the eleventh president of the University of Southern California. He holds the Robert C. Packard President’s Chair and the Malcolm R. Currie Chair in Technology and the Humanities, and chairs the USC Health System Board. In addition, he currently chairs the College Football Playoff Board of Managers. He has been at USC since 1991, as a professor, director of national research centers, dean, provost, and now president. He holds faculty appointments in both electrical engineering and the classics, and currently teaches an undergraduate course on the culture of the Athenian democracy.

During his tenure as president, USC is emerging as a global research university with an undisputed academically-elite status, due to a number of strategic initiatives that include: recruiting a cadre of transformative, world-class faculty and accelerating the expansion of the university’s academic medical enterprise; broadening USC’s international presence; dramatically improving the breadth and quality of its outstanding student body; improving the university’s infrastructure, including the development of the USC Village; and aggressively advancing the largest fundraising campaign in the history of higher education.

Dr. Nikias writes and speaks frequently about a range of nationally significant topics, including the value of—and access to—higher education; the current state and future of online education; the continued importance of the arts and humanities; the art of leadership through the classics; and the role of elite research universities, particularly as economic drivers.

Dr. Nikias is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a charter fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), an associate member of the Academy of Athens, and a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Among numerous other honors, he has received the IEEE Simon Ramo Medal, an Academic Leadership Award from Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service, UNICEF’s Spirit of Compassion Award, the State University of New York at Buffalo’s Distinguished Alumni Award, and honorary doctorates from his alma mater, the National Technical University of Athens; Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion; University of Cyprus; University of Crete; and University of Piraeus.

As president, Dr. Nikias announced a $6 billion fundraising campaign, which—at the time of its launch—was the largest in the history of higher education. USC’s campaign has already surpassed the $5.4 billion mark. Five of its gifts exceeded $100 million, 33 exceeded $25 million, and 64 percent of the total money raised came from non-alumni of the university. In the past four years, USC has consistently ranked in the top three among universities, along with Stanford and Harvard, in cash charitable donations. In recognition of the campaign’s success, The Chronicle of Higher Education has called Dr. Nikias a “prodigious fundraiser.”

Under Dr. Nikias’ leadership, the university is advancing a major capital construction program that already includes Wallis Annenberg Hall, the Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience, Dauterive Hall, Fertitta Hall, the Kaufman International Dance Center, the McKay Center, Uytengsu Aquatics Center, the Engemann Student Health Center, a new Cinematic Arts building, and the University Club at Stoops, as well as the Soto Building, Currie Residential Hall, and Norris Consultation Center on the Health Sciences Campus, and beautification projects for both of USC’s campuses. In addition, construction has continued apace on the USC Village, a 1.3 million square-foot center of student residential colleges that is entirely reimagining the university’s landscape.

In recognition of his efforts to renew USC’s athletics heritage, The New York Times selected Dr. Nikias as one of a small number of national figures “who make sports’ little corner of the world a better place.”

Dr. Nikias is recognized internationally for his pioneering research on digital signal processing, digital media systems, and biomedicine. The U.S. Department of Defense has adopted a number of his innovations and patents in sonar, radar, and communication systems. He has authored more than 275 journal articles and conference papers, three textbooks, and eight patents, and has mentored more than 30 Ph.D. and postdoctoral scholars. Three of his publications received prestigious best papers awards.

Dr. Nikias received a diploma from the National Technical University of Athens, also known as National Metsovion Polytechnic, the oldest and most prestigious higher education institution of Greece, and later earned his M.S. and Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo. His wife, Niki C. Nikias, received a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the Athens University of Economics and Business in Greece and a master’s degree in business administration with a specialization in finance from the State University of New York at Buffalo. The USC Alumni Association named Dr. and Mrs. Nikias honorary alumni of USC. They have two daughters, both of whom are graduates of USC.